Works

Installation

Press Release

James Gortner is a New York artist whose next show, “Ground Breakage,” will open on September 10th. This series is a dramatic departure from the artist’s previous body of work, in which he employed a lush figurative style that was layered on top of reclaimed and recycled canvases, co-mingling with the work of others. In “Ground Breakage,” Gortner employs a technique of his own invention wherein he has quite literally ripped the floor from his Jersey City studio and used this raw material as his medium. The artist extracts and re-purposes parts of the floor onto stretched canvas, reproducing each errant splash of paint and seemingly innocuous bit of debris discarded onto the ground. While visually disparate, this collection continues Gortner’s themes of possession, reclamation, and adaptation of circumstance. The idea was born from a haphazardly served eviction notice, wherein the artist was forced from his studio. By using the very ground he worked on as his canvas, he is re-purposing the property he is being forced to leave, transferring its physical utility and ownership into the greater purpose of Art, and preserving the years of labor he expended in that space.In continuation of the second half of its mission statement, building community from the doors out, the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery proudly announces its executive-level involvement in and support of a groundbreaking new documentary film A New Resistance. To celebrate this announcement and begin raising awareness and financial support for the film, the Gallery will host a public event for the film on Wednesday, September 21st from 6 to 8pm along with director Ed Brown and supporting partner Dave Murphy of Food Democracy Now.